Congress and 'Soft' Hindutva
- In Politics
- 12:36 PM, Sep 13, 2016
- Shailendra Marathe
In the last few weeks, we have seen some gestures by the senior Congress leaders, which have been interpreted to indicate that the party is assuming a 'soft' Hindutva posture[i].
Recent Events – Teresa Canonization and Rahul’s UP Yatra
A week back, Arvind Kejriwal made a point to be at canonization of Mother Teresa in the Vatican. Kejriwal was the only Indian political leader at that function, besides of course, Mamata Banerjee, who represents Kolkata, West Bengal, where Mother Teresa spent her life, and Sushama Swaraj, who was there as a representative of the Government of India[ii]. It is worth noting that the Congress party did not depute a senior leader to attend this function. Sonia Gandhi skipped the function due to illness, and the party deputed former governor Margaret Alva and Goa unit chief Luizinho Faleiro as its representatives to the ceremony[iii]. Both Alva and Faleiro will not be named in the list of top 50 leaders of the party by even a casual observer of politics. The party recently surprised even its senior leaders by embracing the address by Jain religious leader Tarun Sagar to the Haryana assembly[iv]!
Couple of days ago, Rahul visited the Hanuman Garhi temple at Ayodhya, immediately followed by the balancing act of visiting a Kichaucha Sharif Dargah in Ambedkar Nagar district[v]. Of course the Royal Prince did not visit the Ramlala temple next to the Babri masjid[vi]., which is the contentious issue between Hindus and Muslims, for over last 100 years[vii]. Yet this was being sold as 'soft' Hindutba by the MSM[viii]. It is another matter that Rahul Gandhi could not have avoided visiting some Hindu temple, at least for the sake of optics, when he was visiting a mosque. The Congress party official twitter handle @INCindia ensured that both these visits got coverage[ix][x]!
To be fair, as a politician, and the one who aspires to lead the country one day, it is only fair that Rahul Gandhi visits religious places of multiple faiths. Does it however indicate a 'soft' Hindutva approach as is being claimed?
Congress party under Sonia Gandhi’s leadership
The Congress party, under Sonia's leadership, has completely changed its character. So much so that today's Congress party does not resemble the original “Indira” Congress party, Congress (R), its parent, which was formed over three decades back, when Indira Gandhi was expelled from Indian National Congress (INC). The key initiatives of Sonia led UPA have been clearly anti-Hindu and have caused long term damage to the Hindus as a community, while favoring 'minorities' (read Christians and Muslims). Utterances of veteran Congress leaders like A. K. Antony indicate that the party’s leadership has is well aware of the anti-Hindu and pro-minority image of the party[xi].
UPA’s Anti-Hindu Initiatives
Let’s look at some of the key anti-Hindu initiatives of the party under Sonia Gandhi’s leadership.
- RTE- Right to Education
'The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act', popularly known as 'Right to Education Act’ or simply RTE, enacted in 2009, was pushed through without necessary constitutional amendments to ensure that minority institutions can be covered under the Act. As expected as desired by the Congress leadership and National Advisory Council (NAC) led by Sonia Gandhi, the Supreme Court, in a majority (2:1) decision, held that the Act will not be applicable to the minority institutions. But the optics was well managed, and Congress party was portrayed helpless against the Court decision to scrap applicability of RTE to the minority institutions. The friendly MSM, controlled by the Congress- Communist- Lutyens gang, again played its role by downplaying the anti- Hindu bias of the RTE.
- NCMEI- National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions
The establishment of National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) by the UPA in 2004 is another anti- Hindu move. The NCMEI is being used for implementing the anti- Hindu agenda, the most recent example being the withdrawal of CBSE affiliation for the National Public School (NPS) group of institutions, run by National Educational Trust in Bangalore, in September, 2016[xii].
- CVB- Communal Violence Bill
The National Advisory Council led by Sonia Gandhi proposed to legislate Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill (PCTV), better known simply as the Communal Violence Bill, around 2013, towards the fag end of UPA-II. The Bill has its genesis in The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005, which NAC had conceived immediately after the formation of the Sonia Gandhi led UPA-I government[xiii]. Despite numerous issues with the framing of the Bill, the Bill was cleared by the Union Cabinet in December, 2013 and the Congress friendly media marketed it as “community-neutral” legislation that “leaves the prevention and control of communal violence essentially to the states”. The BJP criticized the bill as being loaded against the majority community, while parties like SP and BSP slammed it for encroaching upon the domain of the states[xiv]. The Bill was a result of Muslim leaders, the core support base of the party, urging Congress to pass the communal violence bill, and fulfill the promise made in its election manifesto[xv]. The provisions of the Bill leave us in doubt that the Bill itself is communal and will not only exacerbate communalism, but also destroy the foundations of our federal structure[xvi]. The Bill was rightly exposed as a deadly combination of Jihadi Justice and Inquisition Courts[xvii], and later abandoned by the UPA as a united Opposition forced the government to defer the Communal Violence Bill in the Rajya Sabha[xviii]. However, there is no doubt that the Sonia Gandhi led Congress party made every possible attempt to legislate the anti-Hindu Bill into an Act to please its core support base (read Muslims).
- Invention of Hindu Terror
The political princeling and Congress Party heir apparent Rahul Gandhi mentioned to the U.S ambassador to India Timothy Roemer that, "the bigger threat (to India) may be the growth of radicalized Hindu groups, which create religious tensions and political confrontations with the Muslim community," according to a cable by which was released by Wikileaks in 2010[xix]. It should be noted that Rahul Gandhi made these comments during a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for visiting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which is an official event between two countries. Rahul Gandhi’s self-styled ‘Guru’ Digvijaya Singh has been asserting the saffron terror conspiracies since long, and has used every possible forum to push this agenda, including parliament, the office of the PM, media and public forums[xx]. Digvijaya Singh has gone as far as to pin the 26/11 attack on the RSS[xxi], and the Congress has not disowned him till date, despite such ‘stellar’ track record, thus confirming it stands firmly behind his assertions. The ‘saffron terror’ as a conspiracy of the party to destroy the opposition is well documented and based on a number of key events such as 26/11, Malegaon blasts, Mecca Masjid bombing (Hyderabad), Samjhauta Express bombings and the Ajmer Sharif Dargah blast[xxii]. The Congress leader and Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram, in 2009, compromised the country’s national security, by using Ishrat Jahan encounter case to push the anti-Hindu agenda of the Congress party[xxiii], while another Union Home Minister, from the Congress party again, Sushil Kumar Shinde, accused the BJP and the RSS of fanning Hindu terrorism[xxiv]. This strategy is in sync with the indications from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who publicly claimed that, “minorities, particularly Muslims, must have the
first claim on resources”, thus affirming the overall anti-Hindu party ideology[xxv].
Countless such examples can be given from the 10 years of the UPA rule, such as party’s position on Ram Setu issue, where it filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court, denying the very existence of Lord Ram[xxvi].
Structural Bias
Thus, the Congress party has inherently developed an anti- Hindu bias, backed by the suitable structure, where only the leaders who swear by this agenda can reach higher positions in the party. The ‘owners’ of the party, Nehru family, have not shown any respect for the local customs and traditions either, instead deriding it with utterings such as, “those who visit temples also tease women”, by Rahul Gandhi[xxvii].
Hence the contrived allegations of 'soft' Hindutva aside, the party is unlikely to take a balanced approach towards Hindus, at least till the current leaders continue at the helm. While BJP, the so-called ‘Hindutva’ party, itself runs shy of its alleged 'soft' or ‘hard’ Hindutva image, expecting Congress party to resort to it is simply foolish. Whether this marketing of the party as ‘soft’ Hindutva party will fetch it higher votes in UP is something we should wait and watch.
[i] http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/Congress-aims-for-comeback-in-UP-with-soft-Hindutva-election-pitch/2016/09/09/article3616618.ece
[ii] http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mamata-kejriwal-dine-in-vatican-city-discuss-impending-elections/1/756956.html
[iii] http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/sonia-gandhi-to-miss-mother-teresa-s-canonisation/story-cz8U2MUgZHBmz9xvS02XDN.html
[iv] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/sonia-gandhi-margaret-alva-mother-teresas-canonisation-tarun-sagar-bjp-rss-nukkad-natak-3006977/
[v] http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/rahul-gandhi-visits-ayodhya-a-first-by-nehru-gandhi-member-since-92/articleshow/54227868.cms
[vi] http://www.firstpost.com/politics/rahul-gandhi-steers-clear-of-ayodhya-ram-temple-wary-congress-keen-not-to-repeat-rajiv-gandhis-mistakes-2997602.html
[vii] http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-ayodhya-dispute/1/552484.html
[viii] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/rahul-gandhi-visits-ayodhya-on-uttar-pradesh-congress-kisan-yatra-3021704/
[ix] https://twitter.com/INCIndia/status/774118288456454144
[x] https://twitter.com/INCIndia/status/774242617051615233
[xi] http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140629/jsp/nation/story_18563017.jsp#.V9Puaq0u7Dt
[xii] http://swarajyamag.com/culture/nps-institutions-allege-foul-play-as-cbse-withdraws-affiliation
[xiii] http://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/the-communal-violence-prevention-control-and-rehabilitation-of-victims-bill-2005-165/
[xiv] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cabinet-clears-communal-violence-bill/articleshow/27485032.cms
[xv] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Muslims-want-Cong-to-pass-communal-violence-bill/articleshow/27811566.cms
[xvi] http://www.firstpost.com/politics/9-reasons-why-the-communal-violence-bill-is-itself-communal-17573.html
[xvii] http://indiafacts.org/jihadi-justice-inquisition-courts-communal-violence-bill/
[xviii] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/government-forced-to-defer-communal-violence-bill/article5656766.ece
[xix] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rahul-Gandhi-told-US-Hindu-extremists-are-a-bigger-threat-to-India/articleshow/7115703.cms
[xx] http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/digvijay-singh-takes-war-on-saffron-terror-to-pm/1/107064.html
[xxi] http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/digvijaya-pins-mumbai-attack-on-rss/732903/
[xxii] https://www.myind.net/saffron-terror-congress-conspiracy-destroy-narendra-modi#.dpuf
[xxiii] http://www.firstpost.com/politics/were-chidambarams-changes-in-ishrat-affidavit-part-of-plan-to-create-a-hindu-terror-hoax-2742164.html
[xxiv] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/RSS-BJP-camps-promoting-Hindu-terror-Sushilkumar-Shinde/articleshow/18100459.cms
[xxv] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Muslims-must-have-first-claim-on-resources-PM/articleshow/754937.cms
[xxvi] http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-govt-should-resign-over-affidavit-on-ram-setu-1121636
[xxvii] http://www.oneindia.com/feature/rahul-gandhi-goes-to-kedarnath-but-can-he-erase-controversy-over-his-temple-remark-1726436.html
Comments